A certain flexibility of a catheter is needed to pass through the curvature of the urethra. Normally a catheter is made of the same, flexible, material all the way through. When reaching some resistance when pushed through the urethra, the part of the flexible tube not yet inserted tend to bend. The user will often touch the catheter tube by hand to aid insertion; thereby increasing the risk of urinary tract infections.
It is also a commercial reality that male catheters take up more space than convenient to the user, either at home or on the road.
To comply with the desire for less space consuming catheters, especially catheters having a collapsible, or otherwise space reducing, insertable part is needed. Different types of telescopic catheters have furthermore been disclosed in the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,567 disclose a kidney perfusion catheter assembly having an introducer catheter and a catheter tip. The catheter tip moves coaxially in the distal end of the introducer catheter. The tip may be retracted within the introducer catheter or telescopically extended from the distal end of the introducer catheter component.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,668 discloses an extendable/retractable ventricular catheter which is essentially a two-piece telescoping assembly with a distal catheter slideably extending from within a proximal catheter. When the distal catheter is extended to its maximum length from within the proximal catheter, the two pieces are prevented from coming apart by the distal catheter having an external locking means and the proximal catheter having internal locking means.
However, urinary catheters must be extended before insertion and thereby needs to be locked in such a way that the catheter to do not collapse during insertion. WO 03/002179-A2 discloses a kit for preparing a catheter for draining a human bladder, the kit comprising at least two catheter sections defining a passage therein, the sections being adapted to be arranged in such a mutual configuration that the passages are joined into one passage and the sections together constitute a catheter of a length larger than the length of each individual section and having such rigidity that the entire catheter can be manipulated by manipulation of one of the sections individually. In particular, WO 03/002179-A2 is concerned with a catheter in which a first section is insertable into the urethra and a second separate section is suitable for external manipulation.